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Just breathe (and maybe go buy some crystals).
By Megan Hatch — Last updated on Dec 13, 2022
Chakra is the Sanskrit word meaning "wheel,” and chakras are energy wheels in your body that hold a certain level of consciousness and awareness.
Your chakras become unbalanced, blocked, or hurt when you’re struggling with a physical illness, emotional unrest, or negative expressions, and when you’re emotionally and physically closed off.
But that's where chakra meditation can help you heal.
What is chakra meditation?
Chakra meditation is a practice for healing and balancing your seven chakras: your crown chakra, third eye chakra, throat chakra, heart chakra, solar plexus chakra, sacral chakra, and root chakra.
Chakra mediation is specifically designed to activate, open, and balance the seven chakras within your body. It is a practice that brings awareness to the spiritual energy within us.
When you practice chakra balancing through healing meditation, your chakras give you access to the level of consciousness that each contains.
Chakra meditation usually means focusing on one chakra at a time to not overwhelm you, spiritually or mentally. However, though it's not recommended, some yogis believe you can meditate on all chakras at once
How to Practice Chakra Meditation
In chakra meditation, there are different strategies you can use to balance each of your chakras. Your type of meditation might differ from others.
For example, if you’re more of a visual learner, you might want to focus more on colors that are associated with each chakra as a focal point as you’re meditating. Others might want to close their eyes, place a hand on where their chakra is and focus.
While practicing chakra meditation, just like any other meditation, it’s best to perform it daily or weekly for at least 20 minutes.
The most popular way of doing chakra meditation is to stand, sit on the floor, or lie down and focus on your breathing. While concentrating on your breathing, close your eyes and focus inward, starting with the root chakra and working your way up towards the crown chakra when ready.
When focusing on each chakra, visualize it spinning like the energy wheel it is. Watch the direction of where the wheel is going and breathe into what looks like a light, a shape or space, and observe and trust the process.
Your breath will guide you as it expands the light of the chakra you’re seeing. As you focus on your breathing, it cleanses and heals your chakra to shine bright again. Your breath gives the chakra power to grow and heal. And once you feel as if you’ve healed the chakra, you can move on up.
By the end, if you don’t feel like a certain chakra is as open as others, there are some tips for each individual chakra.
Root Chakra Meditation
For balancing your root chakra, you need to feel grounded in where you are in the world.
Go outside and try doing some yoga or meditation there, barefoot. Connect to the earth, focus your energy, and breathe deeply with every step.
Focus on the base of your spine and imagine a red sphere of light there. Visualize the light spreading to the parts of your body that are touching the earth.
During your deep breaths, imagine the light going from (inhaling) the base of your spine to (exhaling) the earth beneath you.
Sacral Chakra Meditation
In order to successfully complete sacral chakra meditation, you need some crystals and verbal affirmations to help you along.
While meditating and holding your crystal in your hand, repeat positive affirmations that will clear negativity and blockage.
If that doesn’t work, lie on your back and place the crystal over your sacral chakra, which is located on your abdomen/stomach area, and imagine and feel an orange light spreading and healing your body.
Using a water metaphor can also help. While you breathe, imagine your breaths are waves of an ocean. When you inhale imagine the waves coming up to shore, and when you exhale imagine the water slowly washing all of your emotional damage back into the sea.
You can also use the ambient sounds of the ocean to influence your meditation.
Solar Plexus Chakra Meditation
To balance your solar plexus chakra, which is all about your control over your thoughts and mindset, you need to focus on positive affirmations.
You can do this sitting down or laying down, outside if you prefer, and take deep breaths. Do this before you start your day and take this energy with you to train yourself to stay more positive in your thinking, especially toward yourself.
During this meditation, rub small circles on your belly to soften any tension you may be holding there. While meditating, imagine a burning fire behind your navel that is turning all of your inadequate feelings about yourself to ash.
Heart Chakra Meditation
In order to balance your heart chakra, which controls your emotions and feelings, you need to learn how to feel more grateful and happy.
Find something therapeutic like yoga, going for a walk on a sunny day, or taking a bike ride. All of these different physical activities are good to balance your heart chakra because exercise is great for treating this specific chakra.
One mediation practice to use is visualization. While sitting comfortably with good posture, imagine an emerald light being formed around your heart deep within your chest. This light acts as a shield to protect your heart chakra from the challenges life has to offer.
Throat Chakra Meditation
If you feel like your throat chakra is blocked off or unbalanced, this is mostly due to you not speaking and honoring the truth in your life.
You need to put yourself in check when meditating for the throat chakra, and take accountability for your words, by using essential oils and crystals as you meditate to cleanse bad energy.
FIrst though, you must put focus on your throat and parts of your body often associated with it — the mouth, in particular.
Circle your head and relax your jaw slightly. Keep your mouth closed but let your bottom teeth separate from your top. Let all of your muscles relax.
Then, use visualization of a turquoise light or gemstone within your throat that represents your authenticity and truth.
Third Eye Chakra Meditation
You will notice when your third eye chakra is closed off or not balanced when you have anxiety thinking about the future and are wary about your intuition.
To help with this, practice mindful meditation to get you back to trusting your intuition and letting go of fear. To do this, focus on bringing your energy from your forehead to your midbrain. Make sure the space around your eyes is relaxed and not tense.
Remember to breathe and let your thoughts come and go, but never settle on one thing. You can also try alternate nostril breathing or chanting.
Crown Chakra Meditation
Your crown chakra is what helps you feel connected to the world, spiritually and mentally.
In order to meditate for your crown chakra, repeat affirmations to boost confidence and practice basic meditation.
To begin, make sure you are sitting as tall and regal as possible. Tap the crown of your head a few times to activate the chakra. Then, imagine a lotus flower blooming on top of your head. You will see a purple light column starting from the lotus flower and continuing to the sky.
As you breathe deeply, visualize on your inhale that the purple light is moving down and into your body, and on your exhale imagine the purple light going up to the sky.
Benefits of Chakra Meditation
Chakra meditation helps every aspect of your wellness, whether it's emotional, mental or physical. It helps your posture because you feel more confident, sure of yourself, and in tune with your body.
Chakra meditation helps to release and purify any negative energies you may feel, as they are hidden within your body; you have to meditate in order for them to make their way out of your body.
Not only is practicing chakra meditation good for your mind, but it’s also good for your health. If you're tired of feeling sick, unrested and unmotivated, chakra meditation will help you revitalize yourself and just feel better overall.
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Megan Hatch is a former contributor to YourTango who has had bylines on Medium, Buzzfeed, MSN Canada, Patch, Voice of America, Canyon News, and others. Follow her on Instagram and on Twitter for more.